Is Europe a continent with its finger on the self-destruct button? Douglas Murray reflects on Europe’s pervasive and seemingly unfathomable inertia in the face of an immigration crisis, the potential failure of multiculturalism, and the Western fixation on guilt. He travels from Paris to Berlin, from Scandinavia to Greece, in his quest to uncover the malaise at the very heart of European culture. But is the future really so bleak?

Judeophobia, the great hatred. Is it a psychic aberration, a 2,000 year-old disease? Loathing of Jews has been a feature of Christendom since the first accusation of deicide and this, combined with enforced employment patterns – usury and trade – made the Jews the pariahs of Europe, a situation the Enlightenment did nothing to change. Chameleon-like, the hatred became racial rather than religious. Today there is an addition to the old prejudices – aversion to Israel. As the world falls ...